Modi Cabinet 2.0: Nirmala Sitharaman is the new Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs; full portfolio list of the second Narendra Modi-led NDA government out

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 58 other ministers took the oath-of-office in a mega-ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Ram Nath Kovind has announced the list of ministries on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As per the list, former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is the new Finance Minister in Modi Cabinet 2.0, while the Defence Ministry has been given to former Home Minister Rajnath Singh. She has also been given the charge of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 

Furthermore, under her charge, Anurag Thakur has been appointed as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance as well as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Apart from Nirmala Sitharaman, Amit Shah has been given the charge of Ministry of Home Affairs, with Nitin Gadkari as the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Minister of Water Resources, MSMEs and former foreign secretary S Jaishankar as the new Minister of External Affairs among others. 

READ | PORTFOLIOS LIST OUT: Here's The List Of Ministries That Have Been Allotted In The Modi Cabinet 2.0

Nirmala Sitharman formally joined the BJP in 2006 after which she became the national spokesperson of the party. After joining BJP, Nirmala Sitharaman served as the national spokesperson to the party from 2010 to 2014. Later, under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, she served as a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) from 2003 till 2005. 

She was inducted as junior minister (Minister of State, Commerce and Industry, with independent charge) in the 2014 Cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She was later elected as a member of Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh in June 2014.

After fighting for a Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka in 2016 and emerging successful, she was given charge of the Ministry of Defence in September 2017. 

Before becoming the first full-time woman defence minister of India, she had handled the offices of MoS of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Sitharaman has been the face of women empowerment in the Bharatiya Janata Party, who served as India's first independent female defence minister.

She is a graduate from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu and completed her M. Phil in International Studies from New Delhi's JNU. 

On Wednesday, the incumbent Finance Minister in the Modi cabinet, Arun Jaitley, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister-elect opting out of being entrusted with formal responsibilities in the next government, citing his health as being the reason for the decision.  

Jaitley, who has held multiple portfolios in the NDA governments led by both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, including key ministries such as Finance and Defence in the latter, further said that he will take time to focus on his health and therefore will not be a part of the new government. However, in the letter, he assured that he would informally undertake any work to support the Modi government or the BJP. 

READ | Arun Jaitley Cites Health Grounds To Formally Opt Out Of Position In Modi Government 2.0, Says Can Work ‘informally For Govt And BJP'. Read Full Letter To PM Modi Here